Finishing up spring cleaning? Does that include your closet? Our own Debbi O’Shea tells us at DivaDebbi to shed our illusions as we go through our closets deciding what to keep. Among the rules she lays down: “Clothes that have yellowed, faded or pilled go in a Hefty. If you have gained or lost weight, be judicious about what you alter. Alterations are time consuming and expensive. You will never put 4/5 altered garments on your body, ever again.” And “Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that some trend in your closet is going to resurface. When it does, your daughter should be in it and the current designers will have changed some slight component anyway to render it impossible . . .” Truth hurts, but sometimes we’re also laughing.

Canadian finance guru Bev Moir highlights a tax-planning chat in the Financial Post with Arlene Dickinson, CEO of Venture Communications and the only woman entrepreneur-investor on CBC’s hit Dragons’ Den. “Major life events and transitions occur on a regular basis,” Dickinson tells Post writer Mary Teresa Bitti. “Whether it’s divorce, widowhood or job loss, you have to anticipate that will be reality and you have to plan ahead and be proactive, as opposed to waiting and reacting. Women should understand what their financial situation is and establish a relationship with a trusted advisor so that if something happens, you’re not adrift.” Bitti also quotes Moir, a senior analyst at McLeod, about how to protect yourself. Click over for Moir’s step-by-step guidance . . . if only for next year.

“I was a child of the ’60s. No, not those ’60s of peace, drugs, and rock and roll, but rather the period several years prior, when a secret agent named Emma Peel reigned supreme on TV’s The Avengers,” begins a guest post at Racialicious by Lucette Lagnado about growing up an Egyptian Jew in 1960s America. “When I caught my first episode in 1965, I assumed it was the black leather that gave Mrs. Peel her courage. At nine years old, I longed for a catsuit of my own. . . . Every week, I watched with a combination of fascination, intrigue, and utter longing, dreaming of growing up to be exactly like her.” Racialicious excerpts Lagnado’s new memoir, which takes the reader from Cairo to Brooklyn and back again: “It was madness, of course. No child on earth was a more unlikely Mrs. Peel . . . we were Egyptian Jews—Arab and Jewish both. When I was seven, my parents moved me and my three older siblings from Cairo, where we were born. In Egypt, we’d lived in a lovely apartment overlooking a main boulevard and I attended a private French lycée . . .” OK, maybe we’re curious enough to buy Lagnado’s book and read it while streaming the original Avengers in the background.

We knew Shonda Rimes ruled TV (see the first video below), between Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice, and were impressed with the debut of her new show: as Jezebel notes, “Scandal is SO smart” with its Alan Sorkin–speedy dialogue and bipartisan politician-bashing. But we shared Lindsay Cross’s concern at the Grindstone, about the way the main character feeds into some tired stereotypes around women and emotion: “This show might include politics and cover-ups, but at its core it centers around dedicated professionals who put everything they have into their careers. They call themselves “Gladiators in Suits” and they don’t worry about families or life outside of the office. These characters have an opportunity to represent a growing class of business professionals who forgo traditional family life to concentrate on their careers. I just hope that in the future, they move away from the clichés surrounding powerful women.”

The video below, with co-producer Judy Smith, the inspiration for the main character played by Kerry Washington, gives us hope that Smith might help curb the soap operas, just as she does in her D.C. profession.